Amazon's revised shipping costs divide the country into four regions, making it cheaper for sellers to ship to customers falling under the same region.Payal Ganguly | ET Bureau | July 24, 2017, 08:53 IST

Online marketplace Amazon India has revised shipping costs for sellers on its platform using its logistics service, to start charging them on the basis of distance and region.

The revised costs divide the country into four regions, making it cheaper for sellers to ship to customers falling under the same region while shipments from one region to another will see an increase of 15-16% in the weight handling fees charged by Amazon, people aware of the development said.

The rates are applicable to sellers using Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) programme who store their inventory in the Amazon fulfilment centres. FBA covers more than 60% sellers on Amazon platform.

The new rates will be effective from August 8, Amazon India said in an email sent to sellers. It is changing only the weight handling fees while other components including pick and pack, and storage fees will remain constant.

“The recent shipping fee change for our FBA sellers, which is independent of the GST implementation and is based on our regular seller feedback, will provide sellers the opportunity to reduce their costs of doing business on Amazon,” an Amazon India spokesperson said in an email response to ET.

The person said sellers can reduce costs by up to 35% by placing their inventories closer to customers by availing FBA services in additional regions under its ‘Go Local’ programme. Vendors ET spoke to don’t agree with this claim. “For Amazon’s claim of 35% extra savings to be true, all orders should be from a single region,” said an independent seller. “Only if a seller’s 31.8% orders or more are from his own regions will the new rate be beneficial.”